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KYFFIN
,
MORRIS
(
c.
1555
-
1598
),
writer and soldier
;

it is more than likely that he was the son of
TomosKyffin
and his wife,
CatrinLloyd
,
both of whom belonged to county families living near
Oswestry
. All that we know about his education is that he studied poetry under
William Llŷn
(q.v.)
and that, later on, in
London
,
1578-80
, he was one of the pupils and friends of the celebrated
JohnDee
(q.v.)
. About
1580-2
he was
tutor
to
lord Buckhurst
's sons. He
wrote a considerable amount of poetry
in
English
and
Welsh
and in
1587
published
The Blessedness of Brytaine
, a poem in praise of
queenElizabeth
. Many of his
Welsh
poems still exist in manuscript form. In
1588
he published an
English
translation of
Terence
's
Andria
. In
1588
, also, he was appointed
surveyor of the muster rolls
to the
English army
in the
Netherlands
, and in
1591deputy-treasurer of the forces
in
Normandy
. He returned to
London
to complete and publish, in
1594
, his literary masterpiece,
Deffynniad Ffydd Eglwys Loegr
, a translation of
bishopJewel
's
Apologia
for the faith of the
Church of England
, first published in
1562
. The
Deffynniad
has become one of the classics of
Welsh
prose and is remarkable for its smooth and vigorous phraseology. The period from
1596
until his death was a stormy one for
Kyffin
who was then
comptroller of the musters
to the army in
Ireland
and whose duty it was to
keep an eye on unprincipled officers who cheated the Government and oppressed the local inhabitants
. As far as can be gathered,
Kyffin
was honest and conscientious and so earned the hatred of those less incorruptible than himself, more particularly that of his colleague
SirRalphLane
. He d.
2 Jan. 1598
and was buried in
Christ Church
,
Dublin
.